5 Years at Netrush: a Story of Embracing Possibilities

During my tenure at Netrush I have worn many different hats. From working in customer service to management, each more challenging than the next.

Let’s be honest: change can be tricky. I can’t speak for everyone, but I believe it boils down to one important emotion: Fear. It’s human nature to treat uncertainty with caution, not weakness or lack of confidence.

It’s during moments of change where a pivotal decision is made. I’m reminded of the first scene in NetFlix’s House of Cards. Frank Underwood delivers a powerful monologue, stating “there are two kinds of pain. The sort of pain that makes you strong, or useless pain. The sort of pain that’s only suffering.”

You can draw similar connections to fear of change in the workplace. How we handle it affects the outcome. You can choose to turn your back and resist change and the opportunity it represents. Or you can push forward with an open mind and humility, ready to learn. Although difficult, the results lead to extraordinary professional development and knowledge generation. Without a doubt, I’m a more skilled professional because of embracing change and possibilities.

After five years at Netrush, I’ve witnessed how encouraging a culture of Embracing Possibilities leads to positive organizational characteristics. There are three important principles that are strengthened by Embracing Possibilities: organizational knowledge retention, challenge acceptance and flexibility, and loyalty and trust.

ORGANIZATIONAL KNOWLEDGE RETENTION

Companies are much like any living organism. There are many biological functions and each relies on each other for the organism to thrive. If one function breaks down, the rest suffers and does not perform as well. An organization’s collective knowledge is made up of all its employees. The more willing employees are to stay within the organization and try different things, the more knowledge can be created and kept in one place.

This leads to growth and prevents stagnation. It’s a great way to stay ahead of the curve and remain a dynamic organization. You can see this play out in organizations who implement job rotation. One of the benefits is a synergistic compounding of knowledge. People end up learning many pieces of the organization and they can use that to tackle complex problems that would be difficult to solve if said people only had very isolated areas of knowledge.

CHALLENGE ACCEPTANCE AND FLEXIBILITY

When employees are willing to embrace change, it generally also means they are also open to challenges and can remain flexible. This is a crucial piece to our culture at Netrush. Without it, we would be stuck back in the early 2000s with all the other dropship eCommerce companies. Think again about organisms: the key to evolving is mutation. We like to say the more hurdles, the better. They force us to think differently, which results in mutations to our strategy and propels us forward.

As mentioned earlier, Netrush started its journey as a drop shipper. We noticed saturation in the drop shipping market and lower margins. So the challenge was how can we continue to grow with these factors. Due to our culture of Embracing Possibilities we were able to evolve into a leader in brand management on Amazon. It required acceptance, flexibility, and a mind open to change to do this.

LOYALTY AND TRUST

Lastly, another common theme you will find in a culture of Embracing Possibilities is very loyal people. Often in life, when presented with a challenge, it’s common for people to quit. It’s easier to move on to something else than deal with uncertainty or problem-solving. If you can buck this trend and reinforce a culture of exploring the unknown, you’ll likely find people with stick-to-itiveness. The more this occurs, the more people trust each other and are willing to embrace anything that comes their way. Boundaries will be pushed and results over delivered. For Netrush, trust and loyalty are a few of the values we hold highest. We know it must exist in order to accomplish the lofty goals not only we have established, but our partners too.

In a nutshell, if all we do is what we know, then we will never find out how to do the things we do not know. Which is why you have to work toward a culture of Embracing Possibilities. The benefits are limitless and can lead to many wonderful things. So the next time change is at your doorstep, invite it inside, offer it a drink, and see what happens.